and not much else.
“So, can you do it?” he asked.
“I don’t have much of a choice, do I? Just one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I drive there myself. I don’t care what excuse you tell your family. I don’t want to spend a second longer with you than I have to.”
“Agreed,” he said.
“That Sam of yours is certainly a dedicated career woman!” his mother said as she nursed her Arnold Palmer.
Sean rolled his eyes while he worked on his second gin and tonic of the morning.
“Quite impressive, quite impressive,” his father agreed. “Of course, I expect you’ve talked to her about lightening up her ‘duties’ after the wedding? You know what such demands can do on a girl who’s expecting—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Connor said. He checked his phone again, and as if Sam had been waiting, a text popped up.
Five min away, she said.
“She’s almost here,” Connor told his family. He stood up and brushed the croissant crumbs from his lap. “I’m going to go meet her.”
“Perfect timing,” his mother said. “I’m sure the two of you will love the couple’s massage I booked for you.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Connor said. It took all his power to force the sarcasm out of his voice.
Sam was just walking up the steps to the resort with her camel tote bag when he walked onto the patio. She looked beautiful as always in wide-legged white linen pants and a bright pink silky top. “Here,” he began as he reached for the tote. “Let me—”
“I can handle a bag, Connor,” she hissed as she tucked her sunglasses into her tote. In a second, her expression changed completely. A warm smile spread across her face. For a moment, he thought maybe she’d somehow forgiven him, though he couldn’t fathom why.
“Hello, dear!” his mother cooed from behind him. She rushed past Connor and embraced Sam in her arms. “It’s so lovely to see you. And don’t you look beautiful!”
“So do you,” Sam said sweetly. “I just love that dress.”
“Vintage,” his mom told her quietly, as if it were a secret. “Connor’s father hates how I adore these ‘old clothes,’ but men don’t understand much, do they?”
“No, they certainly don’t,” Sam agreed. She looked at Connor pointedly.
She gave a twinkling laugh. “I’ll let you two get settled in your room. I’ve booked a couple’s massage for you that starts in, oh, an hour. You know,” his mother said as she hooked arms with Sam, “I’d booked one for his father and I, too, but the man absolutely refuses. Says he doesn’t want some stranger fondling him.”
Connor thought he saw Sam stiffen slightly at the mention of a couple’s massage. If she had, she’d recovered nicely. She told his mother it sounded wonderful.
“Here we are,” Connor said as he opened the door to their suite.
“It’s just one bed,” Sam said.
“Yeah, well, my parents booked the rooms. I couldn’t exactly ask them for bunk beds.”
She made a face at him and tossed her bag on the chaise. “I’ll sleep on the couch,” she said.
“Don’t be so dramatic. Do you need to change or anything? Before the massage?”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” she said. “Who do I have to impress? I mean, we won’t be seeing your parents for a couple of hours, will we?”
In the dimly lit massage room, the two middle-aged women waited for them, warmed oils at the ready along with hot stones. “Please go ahead and remove everything, except your underwear if you’d like, and get under the sheet,” one of the women said. “Face down. We’ll be back in just a moment.”
Sam turned her back to him as she undressed. It was maddening. He wanted to tell her not to bother, that it wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before. But he still found himself getting aroused as he stole peeks at her bare back. He felt an erection shift when he took in the fullness of her ass in that satin underwear. Stop it, he thought to himself. That’s exactly what you need in a massage room is a raging hardon.
She didn’t look at him at all as she slipped under the white sheet and nestled her face into the massage table opening. Connor took the moment to give her a long, hard look. He couldn’t see much anymore, but it might be the last time he could gaze at her unabashedly.
When he heard a knock at the door, he quickly got under his own covers. The two women went to work as the New Age music swelled in the